Top 10 Failed Products Top 10 Failed Products 5. Crystal Pepsi It’s another soft drink disaster, but just to make things fair it’s a Pepsi fail this time, rather than Coke. Trends in food and drink are always a bit inexplicable (hence the congealed salad), and in the early 90s the trend was for clear colas. Maybe it was inspired by the minimalism trends in homewares and fashion. Maybe it was just a freak occurrence. But in 1992, soft drink executives were rushing around trying to get their clear cola onto the market. Coke had their own brand – Tab Clear – but it was Pepsi that launched first, with Crystal Pepsi hitting the shelves in April 1992, months before Tab Clear. A huge marketing campaign accompanied the launch, with music by Van Halen and more Superbowl ads. But the drink never took off. Consumers seem to get confused by products that look like one thing and taste like something different (e.g. green ketchup) and the drink was pulled the following year. 4. Wow! Chips And here’s another trend that was hot in the 1990s – Fat Free!

None of the fat, same great taste! Diet Everything! And just one of the products launched in 1998 was these Wow! Chips from Frito-Lay. In three different varieties, they delivered what they promised – very little fat but all the taste you’d expect. But they also delivered something else – stomach cramping, “loose stools” and other digestive complications. The ingredient responsible was Olestra , which later led to a disclaimer on the packet about the abdominal complaints it may cause, and the way it “inhibits the absorption of some vitamins and other nutrients”. So, it may well help you lose weight, but only by a combination of stomach upsets and malnutrition. Strangely enough, sales declined after the revelations and the chips were quietly withdrawn. 3. Colgate Kitchen Entrees What sounds more appealing than a combination of toothpaste and ready meals? We’ve all had those moments when we’ve eaten lunch too soon after cleaning our teeth and had an edge of mintiness still. It’s…an acquired taste. But the people at Colgate must have thought there was something in it, as they launched their line of “kitchen entrees” in 1982.

Weirdly, no-one else agreed with them, and the idea of tucking into that exciting-looking dish of rice and vegetables while thinking about toothpaste just seemed to repel buyers. The products never made it beyond the American market and were discontinued. 2. Betamax In the field of emerging technologies, there are always going to be winners and losers – just look at the way MySpace was knocked out by Facebook, and MiniDisc players virtually obliterated with the advent of the iPod. And such was the fate of the Betamax video recorder, whose 1-hour tapes just couldn’t compete with the 2 hours provided by rival system VHS. VHS was also cheaper, which didn’t help the Betamax sales at all. When it launched in 1975, Betamax owned 100% of the market, but the VHS effect reduced it to just 25% by 1981. Despite this, production limped on until 2002, with its prime market being Japan – somewhat incongruous, given that the Japanese are normally on the cutting edge of technology. There are still Betamax players in existence, but there are a rarity and even a collector’s item in some circles. 1.

Dasani Sorry Coke, it’s your turn again and we’re in the UK for the disastrous launch of new bottled water brand Dasani in 2004. Intended as a rival to Pepsi’s Aquafina, it was a relative success in America but a complete disaster in Britain on its launch in February 2004. It started with the marketing slogans – “bottled spunk” and “can’t live without spunk”. In this context, spunk was meant to imply spirit, energy, pizazz….but unfortunately, it’s also a British slang word for semen, and the campaign became a laughing stock. But worse was to come, as Dasani’s “pure” water was found to be no more than tap water, from Sidcup in Kent. It had been treated and bottled but essentially was the same thing that came out of the tap. Coca-Cola said that they had never made any claim as to Dasani’s origins, but Trading Standards hit back, with an investigation into whether Dasani was any purer than tap water, or in fact different at all. It certainly was different. In March 2004, bromate was discovered in the water, which is a suspected carcinogenic.

The water was withdrawn and, when given an opportunity to relaunch it in 2012, Coca-Cola decided against it. A spectacular failure of a product! Why Coca Cola's plastic water bottle Dasani failed in Europe. | elephant journal get elephant's newsletter Plastic Bottled Water? Get a reusable container—it’ll keep your water cleaner, and won’t end up polluting our…water and oceans. Videos: “bottled water is the greatest advertising and marketing trick of all-time.” Why Coca Cola’s plastic water bottle Dasani failed in Europe. Excerpts from Wikipedia: “…the source of the Dasani brand water was in fact treated tap water from Sidcup , a suburban development in London. By early March 2004, the mainstream press had picked up on the story [11] and it became widely reported that Sidcup tap water was being treated, bottled and sold under the Dasani brand name in the UK.

[7] Although Coca-Cola never implied that the water was being sourced from a spring or other natural source, they marketed it as being especially “pure”… …The media made mocking parallels with an episode of the well-known BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses , in which protagonist Del Boy attempts to pass off local tap water as bottled “Peckham Spring”. [7] … …UK authorities found a concentration of bromate , a suspected human carcinogen , in the product that could be considered harmful if consumed in large quantities. Coca-Cola immediately recalled half a million bottles and pulled the “Dasani” brand from the UK market. [13] Shortly after, plans to introduce the brand to Continental Europe were announced to have been cancelled as well. Bromate was not present in the water before Coca-Cola’s treatment process. During that process the bromate was produced from the water’s bromide . Coca-Cola intended to launch Dasani in France and Germany , although this never went ahead after bad publicity in the United Kingdom . 2,015 Shares 14,546 views hot on elephant This iframe contains the logic required to handle AJAX powered Gravity Forms.

About elephant journal elephant journal is dedicated to "bringing together those working (and playing) to create enlightened society." We're about anything that helps us to live a good life that's also good for others, and our planet. >>> Founded as a print magazine in 2002, we went national in 2005 and then (because mainstream magazine distribution is wildly inefficient from an eco-responsible point of view) transitioned online in 2009. >>> elephant's been named to 30 top new media lists , and was voted #1 in the US on twitter's Shorty Awards for #green content...two years running. >>> Get involved: > Subscribe to our free Best of the Week e-newsletter. > Follow us on Twitter Fan us on Facebook. > Write: send article or query. > Advertise. > Pay for what you read, help indie journalism survive and thrive. Questions? info elephantjournal com BBC NEWS | Business | Coke's water bomb Coke's water bomb By Bill Garrett BBC Money Programme Coca Cola is not a company known for making too many mistakes. Its marketing is slick and Coke is the best-selling soft drink in the world.

Few would have predicted that Coke's attempt to launch its Dasani bottled water brand in the UK would prove to be a disaster for such an experienced company. In just five weeks, Dasani had come and gone Yet, in March this year, only five weeks after its multi million pound UK launch, red-faced Coke executives were forced to take Dasani off the shelves in the UK. What went wrong? Dasani was launched in the USA in 1999 as a bottled, purified water, and had become a huge success there. Taking that same formula and repeating it for the UK market must have looked like a breeze, but that wasn't quite how it turned out. Unlike most of the bottled water sold in British petrol stations and supermarkets Dasani hadn't come from alpine glaciers or trickled out of a precious natural spring - it had come out of the local tap. True, the company put it through a purification process and added mineral salts, but the source was still tap water. At its launch on 10 February, some people in the drinks industry already knew Dasani's big "secret".

Simon Mowbray of The Grocer magazine had mentioned the source of the water in an article, but didn't think anyone else would pick up on it. Now, he sees it more graphically. "It was a bomb waiting to go off," he says. The Real Sting At first, the launch seemed to have go well, and Coke executives thought the public would respond to their new product with its distinctive blue packaging. But everything changed when the Press Association reporter Graham Hiscott saw the reference in the Grocer magazine to the real source of Dasani. The following day, the story was splashed across the daily papers. Headlines like "The Real Sting" a play on Coke's "The Real Thing" slogan and the more obvious "Coke sells tap water for 95p" could hardly have been worse for Coke and their new baby. Coke could make a comeback in the UK The tabloids drew on the uncanny parallel with the episode in the BBC sitcom "Only Fools and Horses", in which Del Boy and Rodney take ordinary tap water from their Peckham flat and bottle it up to sell as Peckham Spring. The irony couldn't have been worse.

Dasani was sourced and bottled in a factory in Sidcup, just a few miles down the road from Peckham! The tabloids continued their onslaught. "Are they taking us for plonkers!" yelled the Daily Star. Contaminated Despite the pages of negative press coverage, Coke persisted with Dasani. Executives protested that they had been misunderstood and that the drink was not just tap water but in fact the result of a highly sophisticated process to create the purest drinking water you can get. As far as Coke were concerned, Dasani was a lifestyle drink, a drink you would want to be seen with, the source was all but irrelevant. The fiasco was complete when Dasani was contaminated Then on Thursday 18 March there was even worse news. Something had gone wrong at the Dasani factory and a bad batch of minerals had contaminated the water production with a potentially carcinogenic bromate. Coke admitted defeat. Immediately they withdrew all 500,000 bottles of Dasani in circulation. In just five weeks, Dasani had come and gone, arguably providing more in terms of entertainment than refreshment.

The cost to Coke is thought to run into the millions, but behind the financial loss is the possibility of an even more serious problem. After years of heady growth, sales of Coca-Cola are beginning to flatten out. Bottled water, by contrast, is now the fastest-growing of the soft drinks and Coke still need a successful bottled water for the UK and the European market. An organisation the size of Coke, with the marketing strength that has made it the biggest drinks company in the world, is unlikely to give up easily. Astonishingly, Dasani could make a comeback one day. Asked whether the company has any plans to bring Dasani back, Patricia McNamara, New Beverages Director at coca cola GB says coyly, "we like to think it's a definite maybe". The Money Programme, Coke's water bomb was broadcast on BBC2 at 1930Wednesday 16 June. The Dasani brand and its positioning - A case study to improve... Measure of current brand equity The Brand Value Chain Objectives and goals portfolio. Successful in the United States and other parts of the world, the company has both positive and negative points.

Even though Dasani is a successful brand, it is currently undergoing a difficult time with its marketing strategy and communication mix with respect to its target market. Due to the high content of bromine in the water and rather negative image of ?tap water?, consumers in the United Kingdom refused the brand's products. It has been reiterated many times that it will be impossible for Dasani to enter the UK market once more. However, as it is crucial for the brand to introduce its products to the European market, the only logical way was to improve its image in the eyes of the English consumers. With the 2004 UK scandal, how could Dasani successfully re-launch its products in 2008 on the UK market? What were the brand values that were portrayed and how was it communicated? To answer these questions, we will first analyze the brand's current situation and then understand the importance of brand management in value creation for Dasani. After presenting the brand, we will try to understand the communication mix implemented by the brand on an International level, which leads us to the UK scandal. We will then try to foresee a communication mix and media plan that can easily adapt to the UK market and hopefully be successful in the long run.

In addition, with a new type of media plan, we will need to measure its current brand equity and the budget needed for the launch. Dasani, with a new marketing mix and its communication strategies, can enter the UK market. We will first define the current brand situation by briefly describing the bottled water market with various marketing utilities such as mapping, a SWOT analysis and Porter's five competitive forces. Then, to understand Dasani's situation, we will describe the brand and its marketing mix. is successful in certain places but it is failing in European countries due to the UK scandal. As for their target market, the brand is mainly focusing on the middle age women and men who are trying to have a well balanced life by having a career, building a family and being content with what they have. However, for a brand to do well in a country, it is important that Dasani target the market in the right way and at the right time and focus on its marketing mix and communication strategies. The target market and the values have to be clear so that the brand is clearly identified. To comprehend this, we have decided to examine its communication mix internationally. The name of the brand is well-known and the brand name illustrates certain ?exotic? and ?healthy?

values. In addition, the blue logo is easily recognized, which is always a positive element. The color used has a strong impact compared to the packaging of the other competitors which make the products more visible on the shelves (black color is not usually used for bottled water). Dasani is missing out on special features and competitive advantages that differentiate the brand from its competitors. The brand is reliable because it belongs to a strong group (Coca Cola). Tags: Dasani marketing strategy, bottled water market, Dasani UK scandal [...] SWOT analysis Strengths Weakness Recyclable bottles - Scandal in 2004, UK: Dasani could not meet the UK quality standards : A product of the Coca-Cola The water was treated and Enterprises (CCE) considered as purified tap water The price was high compared to the Purified water which was a quality positive point for the Coca Cola High level of bromine in water group Coca-Cola tried to innovate its products and improve its image (launch a healthy product that could counteract the group's image of obesity) but it failed One of the slogans was "Treat yourself well.

[...] [...] It will also impart a positive image to the brand as Dasani is going to help two young English individuals to start a career to be successful, and also to be associated with the success ((successful image). We chose the contest and the proximity it gives as we really need to change the image of the brand and remind customers that the brand exists. We can then reinforce the new image by using celebrity endorsement (e.g. Charlotte Church and Gavin Henson) as it will bring the Dasani products closer to the soft drinks image. [...] [...] Each actor spoke about the ?clean crisp taste' of Dasani and resorted to the most recent tagline ?Dasani - water that makes your mouth water.? The acts were original and helped consumers recognize and remember the brand name. However, some consumers had negative feelings about the product due to these acts. They thought that if the animals were fake so would be the water. The brand reminded the TV audience that water tastes better because it is not natural water but filtered municipal water which had minerals reintroduced - fake water.

[...] Top sold for marketing Business & market | Marketing | Case study | 09/29/2010 | .doc | 4 pages $ 3.95 Coca - Cola Admits That Dasani is Nothing But Tap Water | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community Coca - Cola Admits That Dasani is Nothing But Tap Water Published on Coca - Cola Admits That Dasani is Nothing But Tap Water by Trevor Datson LONDON - It made for great headlines, but the fact that the UK version of Coca-Cola's Dasani brand bottled water comes out of the London public supply should hardly have come as a surprise. "Coke's in hot water," "Eau dear" and "The real sting" were three good examples of the newspaper headline writer's art, but the only real difference between Dasani and many other bottled waters is that the humble origin of the product is firmly in the spotlight. Figures from independent beverage research company Canadean show that at least two out of every five bottles of water sold around the world are, like Dasani, "purified" waters, rather than "source" waters which originate from a spring.

Most of the supermarket own-label bottled waters consist of treated mains water. They may be dechlorinated, filtered further, purified using ultraviolet light and have minerals either added or subtracted. They may also be carbonated. In short, they are subjected to many of the same treatments that source waters undergo to satisfy public health requirements after being pumped up from the ground. Alongside flagship brands such as Evian, Perrier, and Malvern, most of the big-name water producers market several purified water lines, often in countries where the safety of the public water supply is a concern. Nestle's Pure Life is one such leading brand and PepsiCo's Aquafina is another, while Danone's Sparkletts and Alhambra marques are top sellers in the United States, where mains water purity is not usually an issue. You also have mixed source waters, like Nestle's Aquarel, which comes from seven different springs. Such spring water is cheaper to produce and therefore to sell, and has proved a big hit with consumers in Europe and elsewhere. But generally speaking, anything that doesn't say "source" or "spring" on the label is just fancy tap water. PURE HYPE?

So why all the brouhaha over Dasani, a fairly typical product in a rapidly expanding market? The origin of UK Dasani (it's produced all around the world but is always purified rather than source water) came to light when a complaint was made to the British Food Standards Agency over Coke's use of the word "pure" in its Dasani marketing. The complaint, now being dealt with by the local authorities where Dasani is bottled in Sidcup, east London, hinges on the charge that the marketing implies that tap water is 'impure'. As a market for bottled water, the UK is relatively immature. Britons consume an average of 28 litres of bottled water per year, compared with about 140 litres for Italy and France. So the fact that bottlers take water, purify it further and sell it on can hit the headlines, especially if the water producers take a substantial mark-up in the process. "Coke didn't do itself any favours by not getting the water supplier on side to begin with," one drinks industry insider said of the local supplier Thames Water.

Like Nestle, McDonald's and Cadbury Schweppes, Coke makes a gratifying target for journalists, in that all those companies trade heavily on their brand. That makes them extremely vulnerable to criticism, as Coke already found to its cost with its failed "New Coke" launch. YOU'RE NOT JUST BUYING WATER Coca-Cola's seven million pound marketing drive for Dasani has taken a savage hit, but the success of the brand in other countries, such as the United States where it is the number two seller, suggests it isn't about to go away. In the developing world you usually buy bottled water because it's clean, or because it doesn't taste of chlorine. In the west, it's a "lifestyle choice". Most consumers in developed countries would accept that the water that comes out of their taps is clean enough and quite serviceable for cooking, washing or even drinking. But just as a pair of supermarket own-brand running shoes will do the job, Nike, Reebok and Adidas can all charge top dollar for the kudos, the street cred, the style statement they make.

This is the essence of brand equity, and it's why consumers are happy to pay over the odds for Welsh TyNant water in Cyprus, or French Evian in the Peruvian Andes. It's also why the "water sommelier" has become a feature of upmarket U.S. restaurants. "Branding does matter, even for a mundane product like water," Frits van Dijk, chief executive of Nestle Waters, said last year. "We produce value-added waters. Marketing and R&D all have to be financed somehow and that's why you'll never see Nestle in the very low price market. It's not our territory." © Copyright 2004 Reuters Ltd Advertising case studies: Dasani Fiasco - an advertising case study Dasani Fiasco - an advertising case study I. A synopsis of the previous launch of Dasani outlining why the product failed: Dasani was launched in the UK in February 2004 followed by a series of unpleasant episodes which finally forced the company to withdraw the product from market.

Following events said to have a significant contribution towards the commercial and ethical demise of the brand: The product: Purified ‘tap’ water with added minerals can be termed as a substandard product in a highly sophisticated and well-informed market of bottled water. The preparation: It is clearly visible from the case that Coke saw Europe and the UK as a huge opportunity area and pounced over it to precede ‘Aquafina’ without any concrete research or prior preparation. There was no test marketing done to find out or anticipate the response of potential consumers. Lack of transparency and misleading communication: The brand was positioned as ‘Natural, Pure Mineral Water’ which wasn’t true, the company had to backtrack on its positioning when it was discovered by FSA and lost face in public. High price and unjustified profit margins: As mentioned in the case the price of original source of water per bottle was hardly 0.03p and it was sold at 95p, this meant a mark up of over 3000%. Antagonised retail partners: Coke tried hard to bully retailers for not stocking other local brands of bottled water but it backfired and further complicated the matter for Dasani.

Sluggish response to Media allegations: A prompt response through a quick press conference could have help Coke in resolving this fiasco to some extent but they took enormously long time to go mass. By the time they went on air, media had caused irreparable damage to the brand image. Irresponsible corporate communication: In the press conference the top officials of Coke sounded highly irresponsible and arrogant. Instead of acknowledging the problems they kept on confronting it. An apologetic approach could have lessened the severity of damaged caused to the over all corporate image. Controversy with FSA: FSA further tripped the company because they found that the label was misleading. Bromate fiasco: Presence of Bromate in the samples was the final nail in the coffin which forced Coke to withdraw the stocks from market within 2 months of their launch. From the above incident company can learn following lessons: 1. Do not compromise with product quality at any cost 2. Carry out enough research to understand the market, competitors and the customers before launching the product 3. Test market the product before the launch 4. Maintain high level of transparency and avoid misleading and over promising communication 5. Always be responsive and proactive to criticism 6.

Prepare a contingency plan and avoid delayed reactions 7. Do not exercise power or threat against the stakeholders (retailers) 8. Acknowledge the mistake rather than confronting it How should Coca-Cola go about re-introducing Dasani again? (How would I do it differently if I were the Brand Manager) I. Brand name Although Dasani is withdrawn from the shelves and markets but the brand is still alive in the minds of consumers for all the bad reasons. For a re-launch Coke must sort-out a new brand name to get rid of the negative secondary associations and off-putting past experience. Consumer’s awareness of a brand name is the critical first step in development of brand knowledge. According to keller 1995, Brand awareness is predicted on the existence of a brand node that often occupies a central position in consumers brand memory structures as different type of brand information becomes associated during brand encounters1. As the Brand Manager, I would name the brand as “Bliss”, which has a positive, joyful connotation and it is easy to pronounce and remember. II. Product packaging and design The product will be packed and supplied in 500ml transparent water bottles.

There will be minimum embossing on the bottle surface to enhance the transparent and pure look of the water and th e bottle. The plastic material would be of high quality, thicker than the usual bottles. The idea is develop a highly attractive yet simple pack to encourage consumers to take it home and reuse. Product label would contain all necessary instructions and details about the content, its quantity and quality, date of manufacturing and expiry. The bottle would also have a sipper on top with a protective snap-lid and seal to preserve the sanctity of the contents. III. Brand personality Brand personality can be formally defined as a set of human characteristics associated with a brand. In contrast to ‘product-related attributes’ which tend to serve as a utilitarian function for consumers, brand personality tends to serve a symbolic or self-expressive function (Keller 1993). The grater the congruity between the human characteristics that consistently and distinctively describe a brand, the grater the preference for the brand (Malhotra 1988).

Personality of Bliss: She is 35 something, a mother of 2 A doctor by profession She is beautiful, confident, graceful, enthusiastic, kind, benevolent, sacrificing, truthful, humorous, believes in religion, bubbly, sensitive. She helps, counsels, mediates She laughs and she cries She stands up against injustice She is cautious, aware, knowledgeable, careful She teaches, she guides, she protects, she loves On the five dimensions of brand personality proposed by Jennifer Aaker , Bliss scores high on 3 of them, Sincerity, Competence and Sophistication. However ruggedness and excitement are slightly less visible traits as the brand image is more feminine. IV. Positioning Strategy In marketing, positioning has come to mean the process by which marketers try to create an image or identity in the minds of their target market for its product , brand, or organization. It is the 'relative competitive comparison' their product occupies in a given market as perceived by the target market.

More generally, there are three types of positioning concepts: Functional positions Get favorable perception by investors (stock profile) and lenders Symbolic positions Provide sensory stimulation Provide cognitive stimulation The positioning of Bliss is more of symbolic because it serves all the above mentioned purposes for the consumers viz, enhances the self image, helps consumers identify their ego, and gives them a sense of belongingness and social meaningfulness. In addition, it also gives an assurance to the buyer on the quality aspect. From the competitive point of view the positioning strategy for Bliss can be broadly divided into two options: a) close to competitors b) away from the competitors. Let’s look at the positioning strategy of Dasani's main competitors: Brand: Aquafina Tagline: Make your body happy Target segment: 20-45 M/F 05-45 M/F Natural Mineral Water Although the concept of purity is beaten to death in the mineral bottled water category, but looking at the history of Dasani, Coke must aggressively ride on the ‘purity plank’. Another reason for choosing purity is that none of the brands have taken purity as the single most dominant product attribute. Purity has always been adulterated with freshness, health, youth, taste and fitness.

The above trend could be seen as an excellent opportunity to win the consumer mindshare for purity with Bliss. Hence Bliss will be positioned as the purest form of water on Earth. V. Agency brief for advertising campaign and TV commercial Objective To launch a mineral bottled water brand in a highly competitive, cluttered and lucrative market. To attain leadership status by creating a positive disposition for the new brand amongst the target audience. To reassure the well-informed and educated consumers about the excellent quality and purity of the product. Target Audience Health conscious, fast living urban males and females between the age group of 15- 45 years. People, who buy mineral water for its purity, read the contents and ingredients carefully. Uncompromising mothers who are ready to pay any cost to get the best for their children and family. Cash rich time poor, single guilt ridden parents. Product description 500ml bottled water, sourced from natural sources with no additives. Key Benefits Absolute indisputable purity and the peace of mind. Reason to believe The source of water, the filtration and bottling process, high tech infrastructure and manufacturing facilities.

Background/Competitive Positioning Competitors: Aquafina, Evian, Perrier, Vittel, Volvic and Highland Spring. Realities: Highly competitive and cluttered with dominant players. Obstacles: previous history of Coke with Dasani, me too brand, low differentiation, generic and low involvement category. Communication Strategy As bottled water is quite a generic market, most of the brands are not able justify their claims of purity just by showing factory pictures, high-tech filtration process and strict examination of samples. Yet, the consumers want a strong reassuring brand. A scientific communication would be boring and uninteresting, therefore the communication strategy is to evoke an emotional response and create a positive disposition for the brand. Desired Message Tone Sincere, emotional, dramatic yet modest, firm, promising, positive and confident. The entire Ad will run in slow motion with strong and promising visual cues of trust, sincerity and purity. VI. Story Board Scene 1: The camera zooms out in slow motion from a new born baby’s face and shows an exhilarated mother kissing baby’s forehead with tears in her eyes. Background music: Soft and emotional scene fades off slowly Scene 2: An orangutan mother lovingly hugs the baby close to her chest.

(Refer to the voice over) Scene 3: A baby elephant mischievously runs around his mothers in an open landscape and the mother caringly brings him back close to her with the trunk, to stop him from straying Scene 4: The camera zooms into the face of a lioness licking a cute cub and grooming the tender fur on his body. Scene 5: A panda cuddling it's baby Scene 6: A bird is feeding it's young ones with a selfless pursuit Scene 7: A dolphin slowly swimming up to the surface of a blue ocean shadowing and protecting its baby underneath Scene 8: The blue background of ocean transforms into a stream of pure water falling into a clear glass forming bubbles. Scene 9: The camera zooms out and shows a young executive holding the glass and sipping it with his eyes closed Scene 10: The camera cuts into a beautiful girls face in her track suit drinking Bliss and looking at the bottle with content and smile on her face. Scene 11: A good looking hunky man sipping Bliss with his eyes closed. Scene 12: Logo of bliss appears on the screen followed by the bottle and the tag line - Bliss, as pure as mother’s love!!

Voice Over: “You can see it in her eyes--in her gaze and in her sighs, It is a mother's love. You can feel it in her touch--in her tender hugs and such. It is a mother's love. You can hear it in her words- in her praises and by words, it is a mother's love. She cares, She understands, She lends an ear and holds our hands. She gives us a mother's love”. (Anonymous) Can anything be more natural than mother’s love? Water is the essence of life Sanctity of water demands no compromise, just like mother’s love Introducing Bliss the purest form of water on earth, As pure as mothers love, so that you don’t have to compromise VII. Monitoring and evaluation “Measuring message effectiveness is a difficult and expensive task. In the absence of formal research, we will not know whether the ongoing advertisement is doing good job, nor we would know what to change to improve further advertising efforts. Advertising research enables management to increase advertising’s contribution towards achieving marketing goals and yielding a reasonable return on investment (shimp 2007)”. There are broadly two forms of ad research: measure of media effectiveness and message effectiveness.

Measurement of Media effectiveness critically involves a quantitative evaluation of reach, frequency, weight, consistency and continuity of the message to the target audience, whereas message effectiveness involves a qualitative analysis of the impact of message on the target audience. Measurement of Message effectiveness – pre campaign evaluation “There are 4 stages at which ad message research might be conducted: 1. at the copy development stage 2. at the rough stage 3. at the final production stage, prior to airing the ads 4. After the ad has been run in media. (Shimp 2007)” Qualitative message research A focus group research would be carried out for testing the mix and to ensure that executions convey correct image and are understood by consumers at every stage of message development. A story board would be shown to a panel of focus group participants and then with the probing of the moderator would be urged to share their opinion and feelings about the commercial. Quantitative Message research – Post campaign evaluation Measure of recognition and recall: viewers would be asked questions to find out if they remember the ad, brand name and other details. Online research – e mail different commercials to online users to find out if they remember seeing the adverts.

Day after recall testing would be deployed to measure the recall value of the advert. Since the advert has a very high emotional appeal we would also deploy the galvanometer test to measure the emotional reaction and physiological arousal. ARS persuasion method would be deployed to measure the individual selling proposition as well as the entire television commercial. The sales response would be measured by Scan Track and Behavior Scan tests, where in the scanners would be installed in panel member’s homes. But this technique may not be much effective because most people consume bottled water as and when the need arises and do not bring bottles home beforehand. References: (Brand Personality - The Relationship Basis Model) Jennifer L. Akar (Dimensions of Brand Personality) Journal of Marketing Research Vol XXXIV (Aug 1997) 347-356 accessed online on 1st June 2007 available from world wide web Dematrios Vakaratsas et al. Journal of Marketing Vol. 63 (January 1999), 26-43 Fill.

C(1999) Marketing communications contexts, contents and strategies, Prentice hall Kapferer J (2004) The new strategic brand management Kogan page US Kotler, P. & Armstrong, G. (1996). Principles of Marketing. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, Inc Wheatley, J. (Editor). (1969). Measuring Advertising Effectiveness. Selected Readings. Ontario: AMA Reprint Series. Richard D. Irwin Inc. Shimp (2007) Integrated marketing communications in Advertising and promotion, Thomson south western Posted by The 6 Most Disastrous Product Launches Ever - And What You Can Learn From Them - How To Make Money Online By: Richard Adams Topics: Entrepreneurship If you’ve ever created a product only to see it fall flat on its face then take heed. You may think that the big brands like Coke and IBM, with all the resources at their fingertips, would never release a disastrous product. But you’d be wrong. As it turns out, the history books are littered with product launches gone bad – some costing literally hundreds of millions of dollars.

Fortunately the bigger the disaster, the more we can learn from the experience. So let’s pick apart some of the biggest ever failed product launches to highlight not only the risks of launching a new product but also what we can learn from these shocking case studies. IBM PCjr Once upon a time IBM were the manufacturers of business computers in the form of their IBM PC. Buoyed by their success, and keen to expand their market reach even further, IBM decided to venture into the consumer market by offering a computer specifically designed for home users. Thus, the IBM PCjr was born. The pre-launch excitement was palpable – it was the “Apple cult” of it’s day. Computer lovers weren’t just lining up ready to buy the new system months before it’s launch but they were even shunning equal machines released by IBMs competitors. The pressure was on. Sadly, rather like many over-hyped product launches, the reality failed to live up to expectations. For one, the keyboard was so small and so ugly as to be virtually unusable. Indeed, as sales flagged IBM even swapped out the keyboard for a better one at huge expense but sales failed to recover.

However this didn’t address the two core issues that led to the IBM PCjr’s failure; firstly the machine cost almost double what similar machines were selling for with no obvious benefits. Even worse, the limited processing power of the IBMjr meant that in many cases software, and even individual files, weren’t compatible between the IBM PC and the PCjr. This meant that anyone wanting to transfer information between the two machines – such as business owners who wanted to do some work from home – were setting themselves up for a fall. Shortly after launch, when monthly sales were only in their thousands, IBM pulled the plug on their greatest product launch failure ever. So what can we learn from IBM’s dismal failure with the PCjr? Firstly, if you’re going to sell a product, it must be worth the money you’re changing. Many brands over the years have shown that premium products will sell, but only when customers still consider them fair value. Before launching any kind of product, market research is essential. Get your product into the hands of your potential customers and ask them for their thoughts. Do they like it? How can it be improved? How does it measure up to their expectations?

And arguably most importantly of all (for IBM at least): what will customers willingly pay for your product? New Coke One of the classic product launch failures involves one of the most iconic and well-known brands in the world; namely the Coca Cola company. For years, Pepsi and Coca Cola had been fierce rivals for the title of “cola king” but what worried the Coca Cola company was that they seemed to be losing the battle. Pepsi’s sales continued to grow while their own faltered. Alarmed at dropping sales, Coke decided they need to take massive action. Taste tests suggested that many customers preferred the sweeter taste of Pepsi over Coke so experts set about creating a “new Coke” that was more appealing than Pepsi’s offering. Researchers found customers largely in favour of New Coke and so in 1985 the product was officially launched. The response was almost immediate. While some cola drinkers did indeed prefer New Coke over the old formula or even over Pepsi, there was a problem. A vocal customer base felt cheated that their beloved drink had been tampered with and started to boycott the new version.

Sales dropped still further until, with a heavy heart, executives at Coke had to perform a “u-turn” and reintroduce the old formula. The really interesting thing about the New Coke saga from an entrepreneurs perspective is that in theory the product should have been a winner. Coke poured huge amounts of time and money into their research and development and indeed on average people did prefer the new, sweeter beverage over the old one. So what really went wrong? In essence, Coke forgot to consider one vital element – and that was their brand. Not the price, the appearance or the flavor of their drink but rather the feelings people had about the company. For many people, Coke was a part of their identity. They’d enjoyed it for years and rather like supporting a certain football team the Coke/Pepsi divide helped to define who they were as a person. Indeed Coke’s branding was so strong that when they stopped producing the old formula, some die-hard enthusiasts even started importing it from overseas where New Coke had not yet been introduced. Their customers felt cheated and deceived. The brand had changed – and they didn’t like it. So the biggest lesson that entrepreneurs can learn from the dismal failure of New Coke is the importance of really understanding your customers.

By interacting with them through the enquiries they make and through surveys and social media, you’ll gain a better understanding of what works. Try to gain an understanding of how your customers view you and what your brand traits are, so that you can live up to these expectations. Consistent branding works; it builds trust and makes customers feel comfortable. It’s how Ray Kroc grew McDonalds into one of the biggest companies in the world, because wherever you see the “yellow arches” you know exactly what you’re getting. Imagine walking into McDonalds to find it selling only vegeburgers and imagine how cheated you’d feel. In other words choose a brand and stick to it, no matter what. Tetris “Tetris, a failure?” I hear you ask? Right now you’re probably remembering the Gameboy you lovingly owned years ago and the many happy hours you spent playing Tetris. So how could a game that has become such a part of popular culture be considered a dismal failure? The reason to consider Tetris a product launch disaster concerns the secret battle between Nintendo and Atari. Before it hit the big time, every software manufacturer that encountered Tetris saw the games massive potential and wanted a piece of the action.

Soon many of the biggest names in the industry were battling it out for rights to produce and sell the game on their platform and two of the biggest rivals were Atari and Nintendo. In theory Atari won the race; they got approval to mass-produce the game long before Nintendo got to the table. But there was a problem; they were negotiating with the wrong person. Nintendo may have been late to the game but they rapidly identified the “go-to” guy and began negotiating in earnest. The outcome was that Atari incorrectly thought they had won sole rights to the game when infact they had been beaten by Nintendo. As Atari had negotiated with a more junior person, the Nintendo deal won out after some unpleasant legal wrangling. Unfortunately by the time Nintendo was finally crowned the victor, Atari had already manufactured vast supplies of the game to distribute. On losing the case Atari were then faced with an expensive and embarrassing obligation to dispose of all their Tetris game cartridges. In all, they recalled and destroyed over a quarter of a million games, a mistake that cost them millions of dollars. So while Tetris may have been a major success for Nintendo it also represents a massive disaster for competitor Atari who failed to do their research properly and eventually missed out.

There are a number of points that we as entrepreneurs would do well to learn from this unfortunate saga. Firstly, try to identify the real authorities in your chosen business niche and build trust and rapport with them. Relationships are just as important as ever when it comes to growing a venture and having the right friends can make or break a business. Secondly while entrepreneurs tend to be impatient, action-oriented individuals, it’s also important to have someone on staff who is well-grounded and will look at the finer details of a project. Whether you employ a staff member specifically or outsource as necessary, don’t underestimate the importance of the right counsel in the form of lawyers and accountants when you’re making important decisions in your business. One badly-checked piece of paper really can bring the roof down if you’re unlucky. Dasani Poor old Coca Cola. As if the New Coke fiasco weren’t enough of a mistake, the UK release of their bottled water product was an even greater disaster leading to possibly more bad press than any other major product launch in history. By definition, most bottled water sold comes from natural springs where it is considered to be fresher, purer and more healthy than tap water. Many people also believe it tastes better too.

All the major bottled water brands sold in Britain such as Evian and Buxton follow this most basic rule. However Coca Cola decided to do something different… Upon the release of the Coke’s heavily-marketed Dasani water, consumers were outraged to discover that the water they were spending good money on hadn’t just bubbled up from an anchient aquifer but had instead come from a tap in London. No matter that Coca Cola claimed the tap water was put through a purification process and had trace minerals added to it – the fact is that bottled water is seen as natural and healthy while tap water and artificial processes aren’t. In other words, the product was at odds with consumers from the very outset. Just like the New Coke scenario, the taste wasn’t what mattered. What counted was what consumers thought about the product – and that was over-poweringly negative. With a PR crisis on their hands and customers feeling cheated and lied to the story just got worse; abnormally high levels of a cancer-causing agent was also identified in the water. As the mineral wasn’t present in the original water, Coke’s “purification” process must have been inadvertently adding it somehow.

Coke quickly withdrew hundreds of thousands of bottles and as consumer confidence sunk to an all time low, the drink was finally discontinued. Indeed, while Dasani is still sold in some countries, the negative publicity in the UK not only led to the product’s withdrawal here but also shelved the launch of the product in mainland Europe too. There are two lessons here that we entrepreneurs need to keep in mind. The first of these relates to quality control. If Coke was properly testing their water then the harmful chemicals would have been noticed in advance. Never make assumptions about your product or business; instead try to experience it as a customer with fresh eyes and see what your own experience is. Secondly, your customers aren’t stupid, so don’t treat them like it. The overwhelming response from customers about Dasani water was that they felt cheated and conned. They felt like Coke had tried to take advantage of them, and nobody likes to feel like that. Remember that your customers are the lifeblood of your business and they should be treated with the utmost respect at all times. Think about how your product lives up to expectations and, like Apple or Dyson, find ways to exceed those expectations in every interaction.

When you succeed, you’ll build massive trust and loyalty in your business that can explode your growth. Premier Cigarettes When the dangers of smoking cigarettes started to become public knowledge in the 1980’s, tobacco firm RJ Reynolds hit on a novel idea to grow their customer base; a cigarette that doesn’t give off smoke. The theory was that a smokeless cigarette would not only be more socially-acceptable but would also appear healthier to customers who were concerned about the risks of smoking. Sadly, the reality was rather different. While the developers made good on their claims of a smokeless cigarette, the complicated process of making a tobacco that didn’t produce visible smoke had two major shortfalls. Firstly the cigarettes were virtually impossible to light and secondly customers found the taste repulsive. For most customers, one packet was enough before they scurried back to their old cigarette brand. Shortly after it’s launch, the smokeless cigarette was withdrawn from sale, as RJ Reynolds flushed over $300 million of development costs down the drain. The simple fact is that there’s no point in trying to run before you can walk. It’s doesn’t matter if a cigarette doesn’t produce smoke if the most basic elements aren’t there.

If you can’t light a cigarette and it tastes vile then nobody will want it. As an entrepreneur, remember the old adage that “form follows function”. Ensure your product does exactly what it says on the tin – smoothly and efficiently – before you start trying to add any gimmicks on top to try and make you unique. Imagine if Popup Domination – the most popular WordPress plugin for building your mailing list – wouldn’t actually add subscribers to your autoresponder. It wouldn’t matter how fancy the popups looked or how easy it was to install – if the core functionality isn’t there then your product is going to fail. And as a final point, try to keep your product development costs as low as possible. The more money you spend, the higher your risk is. While you may have grandiose ideas about a new piece of software, a mobile app or whatever else, try removing things from the project to see if you can save time and money on development costs without giving up the core purpose of the product. Entrepreneurs have a saying: “fail fast and fail often”. The more products you release, the sooner you’ll find a winner.

And when you land that “big catch” you’ll be in a perfect position to reinvest some of your profits into new features and really turn your product into a market leader. Betamax Many of us have heard the story of two competitors battling it out for dominance in the video cassette market. Strangely, while we all know that VHS was the ultimate winner, with Betamax dying a painful death, the most obvious question is why? After all, most people who tested both formats preferred Betamax citing it’s far higher quality as the reason for their preference. So if a “better” product lost out to an inferior one, what really happened, and what can we as entrepreneurs learn from the experience? It turns out that Betamax had an Achilles heel that led to it’s downfall; namely the video tapes they made weren’t very long when compared to VHS which made putting a whole movie on a Betamax cassette almost impossible. As a result of this shortfall, the major Hollywood studios opted to release their movies on the longer VHS format which helped it to almost instantly corner the market.

While Betamax may have been a superior product, there simply weren’t enough videos worth watching and so, slowly, even die-hard Betamax aficionados found themselves admitting defeat and investing in VHS in order to enjoy their favourite films. They say that “no man is an island” and this can be applied just as easily in business. A really smart way to get big fast is to piggyback off an already successful company. In many ways this is why Paypal has become such a big name because they set themselves up as the payment service for Ebay sellers. It’s also one reason that Buffer has become so big – by creating a simple solution to a problem that millions of existing Twitter users have. Piggybacking works, big time. When you’re considering launching a product take a long, hard look at the market and your potential customers. Try to find related products and services that you can align yourself with and use their success to build your own business as break-neck speed. So now it’s your turn. If you’ve ever launched a product of your own – whether it was a success or not – please leave a comment below and tell us what your experiences were and what your learned. We’d love to hear from you!

"Do Not Write Another Blog Post Until You Watch This Free Video..." Watch this free video to learn... How I got over 10,000,000 people to visit my websites. The types of blog post that got me all that traffic. How to get someone else to do it for you! Where should I send your video? Please enter your email address Your privacy is safe I will never share your information. Types of Bottled Water - Consumer Reports Water Filters Sales of bottled water are on the rise, increasing 2 percent, to $7.8 billion, from August 2010 to August 2011 in supermarkets, drugstores, gas and convenience stores, and mass merchants (excluding Walmart), according to SymphonyIRI Group, a market-research company. If you're going to pay for a product you could get for free, it helps to know what you're buying, so below you'll find a water glossary. Along with the information that follows, note that you may see “glacier water” and “mountain water” on bottles, but there's no standard definition for those terms. Whatever the bottle says, don't be misled by crisp blue labels and pictures of mountains.

Forty-seven percent of the bottled water sold in the U.S. is tap water that's been purified, according to data from the Beverage Marketing Association, a trade group. If you're concerned about the water quality in your area but don't want to pay for bottled water, check out our review of water filters . Artesian Water obtained from a well that taps a confined aquifer, an underground layer of rock or sand that contains water. Example: Fiji Natural Artesian Water. Distilled Water that has been boiled and then recondensed from the steam that the boiling produces. Distillation kills microbes and removes minerals, giving water a flat taste. Example: Glacéau Smartwater. Mineral Groundwater that naturally contains at least 250 parts per million of dissolved solids. All minerals and other trace elements must be present in the water when it emerges at the source. Example: Calistoga. P.W.S. Public water source, also known as municipal water supply, or tap water.

Fun fact: Aquafina, one of the top 10 selling domestic brands, used to say “P.W.S.” on its label—but changed that in 2007 under pressure from Corporate Accountability International to make clear that the water came from a public supply and not some pristine mountain spring called P.W.S. Purified Water from any source that has been treated to remove chemicals and pathogens according to standards set by the U.S. Pharmacopoeia. Must contain no more than 10 parts per million of dissolved solids. Distillation, deionization, and reverse osmosis are all purification methods. Examples: Aquafina, Dasani. Sparkling Water that contains carbon dioxide at an amount equal to what it contained when it emerged from its source. Carbon dioxide lost during the treatment process may be added back. (Carbonated waters such as soda water and seltzer are considered soft drinks, not bottled waters.) Example: Perrier. Spring Water derived from an underground formation from which water flows naturally to the Earth’s surface. Spring water must be collected at the spring or through a borehole tapping the underground formation (aquifer) feeding the spring. Examples: Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water (Nestlé), Evian.

Editor's Note: A version of this article appeared in the July 2012 issue of Consumer Reports magazine with the headline "Talk the Talk: Bottled Water."

Question: What type of product was the failed brand Dasani?
Answer: (Bottled) WATER